Saturday, April 14, 2012

De Vitiis et Divitiis


362     -     363     -     364


De Vitiis et Divitiis
Nemo hominum vivit sine crimine, sive crumena.
Crimine rara suo plena crumena caret.


OF VICES AND RICHES
No man doth crimeless live, or Coinless here,
A full fill’d Purse from crime is seldom clear.

Source: John Owen (c.1564-c.1628), Epigrammata, 9.52, with an English translation by Thomas Harvey. Meter: Elegiac. Look at this wonderful word play with vitium and divitiae along with crimen and crumena.

The vocabulary is keyed to the DCC Latin Vocabulary list. There is only one word in this poem that is not on the DCC list:

crumēna (crumēnae, f.): purse, money-bag

careō -ēre -uī: lack (+ abl.)
crīmen -inis n.: verdict, accusation
dē: down from, about, concerning (+ abl.)
dīvitiae -ārum f. pl.: riches, wealth
et: and
homo hominis m.: human being
nēmo: no one (gen. nullius, dat. nulli, abl. nullo or nulla > nullus -a -um)
plēnus -a -um: full
rarus -a -um: wide apart, loose, thin; rare, seldom
sine: without (+ abl.)
sīve seu: whether; sīve . . . sīve: whether . . . or
suus -a -um: his own, her own, its own
vitium -ī n.: flaw, fault, crime
vīvō vīvere vīxī victum: live